As the saying goes, it is difficult for a good woman to cook without rice, but isn't it the same as not being able to cook without rice without a pot? However, the Japan military department, which has always been careful about the personal living materials of soldiers, does not think so, and can't you rub it yourself without cooking utensils? In 1943, the Japan Army Grain Rice Factory compiled a guide called "Simple Production Method of Field Conditioning Appliances", guiding grassroots soldiers to use some readily available materials to make simple cooking utensils in a field environment where cooking utensils are lacking to meet the needs of food production.
■Japanese soldiers who are eating in the field sometimes have a problem not only eating, but also cooking.
Gasoline barrels are wonderful
Among all kinds of cooking utensils, the pot is undoubtedly the most important, which is equivalent to a second life for the chef, and there is no food without the pot. Japanese troops fighting on the Pacific front who lacked marching pots for cooking operations could sometimes use empty gasoline drums to make improvised cookers instead. The method is very simple, use a saw blade to cut off the empty gasoline barrel, and the lower part of the bottom of the barrel can be directly used as a simple pot, of course, it must be thoroughly cleaned, otherwise how to swallow the smell of gasoline to make rice? According to the calculation of the capacity of the standard gasoline barrel of the Japanese army at that time, a simple pot can cook rice for 100 people.
■Japanese soldiers are making rice, and there seems to be rice boiling in a large pot nearby, and sometimes the Japanese soldiers will use empty gasoline cans to transform improvised cookers for use.
Don't be in a hurry to discard the upper half of the cut gasoline can, buckle it upside down on the ground, cut a rectangular opening on the bottom edge, drill two holes in the front and back near the upper edge, the square mouth below can be used as a furnace mouth for adding fuel, the hole in the upper part can be inserted into the iron bar that supports the rice cooker, and a round hole can be cut out on the back as a smoke exhaust outlet. After some operation, a simple stove converted from an empty gasoline drum was completed.
■Schematic diagram of the "Law on the Simple Production of Field Cooking Equipment" on the transformation of a simple stove using empty gasoline barrels.
All-purpose bamboo shoots
As a material with both strength and toughness, bamboo has great practical value in wild life and is widely used. In the "Simple Method for Making Field Cooking Equipment", the method of weaving a sieve rice basket from sharpened bamboo strips is recorded. After weaving, in order to prevent the rice grains from falling to the ground and causing waste when sifting the rice, an empty jar is used as a base and tied with vines and a basket for sifting, so that the rice that has been missed after several sieves can be collected for other purposes.
■Bamboo, which can be found everywhere in the tropics, provided an abundant raw material for the Japanese army's homemade cooking utensils.
Sometimes, when boiling soup, it is necessary to strain the soup, and in this case, it needs the assistance of a bamboo sieve. In order to facilitate distribution, the bottom of the bamboo screen will also be attached to the empty jar, and the filtered soup will be left in the jar, and some toppings can be added to distribute it to the soldiers, improving the efficiency of the meal.
■The hard coconut shell can also be used to make substitute utensils after processing.
What if you are thirsty on an island and want to drink water, but don't have a suitable water container? Readily available coconuts can be used as a substitute. Peel the fresh coconut, clean the inner flesh, reserve a hole in the opening, take a piece of bamboo to open it, and embed it in the coconut opening, so that the coconut kettle is completed. In addition, bamboo can also be used as a raw material for various simple tableware, such as wine glasses, soup spoons, bamboo skewers for skewers, and so on.
■The bamboo cups made with modern techniques will certainly not be so delicate as similar utensils made by the Japanese army in the battlefield.
Canned boxes are reused
Canned food is an important category of field rations for the Japanese army, but don't throw away the canned food boxes after eating, and you can do it on the front line where there is a lack of utensils
It is a good material for making simple eating utensils. All kinds of fruits and canned meat can be combined with bamboo and other materials to make alternative soup bowls,
Rice bowls, etc. However, in order to avoid scratching the lips, it is necessary to polish the openings or use trimmed bamboo
Hemming treatment to prevent cuts.
■Japanese soldiers who served canned food with their meals sometimes had the value of reusing empty canned food boxes after eating.
Tamakoyaki is a popular food among both the Japan Navy and Army, but making this food requires the use of a special cooking utensil, Tamako-yaki pot. Obviously, this kind of cooking utensils will not be a military standard item, so you need to make your own at the front, and this is when empty cans will come into play. Take a few empty cans and cut them, obtain tinplate sheets, staggered and hammer several iron sheets until they are flat, and finally put the iron sheets into a rectangle, and make the edge of the pot, in order to ensure the strength of the pot body, wrap a layer of iron sheet inside and outside to reinforce, so that a jade burning "pot" is completed.
■ Japan makes a special tamakoyaki pot, and the Japanese army will use the iron sheet of the empty canning box to create a substitute on the front line.